Borderlands 4 crashing, stuttering or low FPS on PC? 2K’s official fixes: AMD Upper Dominion crash, shader cache, upscaling, OneDrive and settings errors
Borderlands 4 crashes, stutters or runs at a low frame rate on your PC? 2K keeps an official PC troubleshooting guide and a public issue tracker on its Borderlands Support site. Here are their steps, in a sensible order, as read on November 11, 2026. TricknFix did not test these steps on its own PCs: they are 2K’s instructions and known-issue workarounds, not a guarantee.
1. AMD PC crashing when fast travelling to Upper Dominion (since the October 22 update)
• 2K’s issue tracker says that players with AMD hardware may crash when fast travelling into the Upper Dominion areas of Kairos after the October 22nd Major Update, and that once this crash occurs the game can keep crashing on launch.
• 2K’s workaround: roll back your AMD drivers to Adrenalin 26.8.1, then start the game again. The issue is still listed in “Live Issues” (post last updated November 10, 2026).
2. Check that your PC meets the requirements
• Minimum (1080p at 30 FPS, Low preset): Windows 10/11 64-bit, Intel Core i7-9700 or AMD Ryzen 7 2700X, 16 GB of RAM, GeForce RTX 2070, Radeon RX 5700 XT or Intel Arc A580 (8 GB of VRAM), DirectX 12, 100 GB on an SSD.
• Recommended (1440p at 60 FPS, Medium preset): Intel Core i7-12700 or AMD Ryzen 7 5800X, 32 GB of RAM, GeForce RTX 3080, Radeon RX 6800 XT or Intel Arc B580 (12 GB of VRAM or more).
• 2K also offers a PC Compatibility Checker on its support site and says it cannot guarantee the game will run below the minimum.
3. Update your graphics driver, and let shaders finish
• For performance issues or graphics glitches, 2K’s first advice is to update your NVIDIA, AMD or Intel graphics driver (except for the AMD rollback above, if you are affected).
• 2K estimates that shaders take about 10 minutes to compile on most PCs. If it takes much longer, restart the game and your PC.
• Every time you change graphics settings, shaders recompile: 2K says to keep playing for at least 15 minutes before judging the new performance.
4. Clear the shader cache if stutter persists
• NVIDIA: go to %LOCALAPPDATA%\NVIDIA\DXCache and delete the large files (over 10 MB). This may also clear shaders for other programs.
• AMD: open AMD Software: Adrenalin Edition > Gaming > Graphics, scroll down and choose Reset Shader Cache. This wipes shaders for all programs.
5. Turn on upscaling, and watch V-Sync with frame generation
• In the game: Options > Visuals > Advanced > Resolution Scaling > Upscaling Method, then pick DLSS (NVIDIA), FSR (AMD), XeSS (Intel) or TSR (Epic Games). 2K also recommends Upscaling Quality on Performance and Frame Generation on.
• On Windows 10, 2K says you must turn on Hardware-accelerated GPU scheduling (Settings > search “Graphics” > Change default graphics settings) and reboot; it is on by default on Windows 11.
• Known issue (status “Planned”, October 2, 2026): with V-Sync and Frame Generation both on and a low refresh rate monitor, PC players may see more input latency, frame skips, screen tearing and lower performance; rare cases were seen on 60 Hz monitors.
• An earlier crash on launch with AMD FSR upscaling on RX 7000 series GPUs (driver 26.6.2) is listed by 2K as patched.
6. “Incompatible version” error or “Your settings have failed to save”
• If you can’t download updates or see “The Session You are Trying to Join is Running an Incompatible Version of the Game”, 2K says this can happen when the game or its patch folder is on a secondary drive or cloud storage such as OneDrive, or when your Windows user name contains non-English characters. Workaround: make sure the files are not in OneDrive and that your Windows user name has no non-English characters.
• If the game says “Your settings have failed to save”, 2K points to a non-standard Documents path or game files stored in OneDrive. Its suggestions: keep saves in Documents/My Games/Borderlands 4, allow the game through Windows Defender or your firewall, and add the install folder to your antivirus allow list.
7. Common PC troubleshooting steps from 2K
• Verify game files. Steam: right-click Borderlands 4 > Properties > Installed Files > Verify integrity of game files. Epic: the three dots next to the game > Manage > Verify.
• Disable overlays: Steam > Settings > In-Game > untick “Enable the Steam Overlay while in-game”, and turn off Discord, GeForce Experience or MSI Afterburner overlays.
• Run the game as administrator (right-click the shortcut or .exe > Run as administrator). 2K also suggests trying Windows 10 compatibility mode.
• Add the game folder as an exception in your antivirus. Only disable your antivirus or firewall briefly to test, and carefully.
• Restart the game, then uninstall and reinstall it if the problem continues.
8. Intel 13th or 14th Gen processor?
• 2K’s guide points to Intel’s information that some 13th and 14th Gen CPUs may become unstable under load, which can show up as slowdowns, crashes, overheating or large CPU usage spikes while gaming or installing a game. It links to Intel’s official community post on the issue.
What is not known
• 2K does not say how many PCs are affected by the AMD Upper Dominion crash, or when a fix will ship: the post only gives the driver rollback workaround.
• 2K’s guide is a general guide: it does not promise that any setting removes all stutter on a given PC.
• If none of this works, 2K asks players to check the Borderlands Issue Tracker and then send a support ticket with a DxDiag and MSInfo file.
More PC game fixes on Windows 11: #windows-11 (https://tricknfix.com/tags/windows-11/).
Sources
• Borderlands Support (2K), “Borderlands 4: PC Troubleshooting and Optimization Guide”, updated October 6, 2026, read November 11, 2026 (https://support.borderlands.com/hc/en-us/articles/44493923901971-Borderlands-4-PC-Troubleshooting-and-Optimization-Guide).
• Borderlands Support (2K), “Borderlands 4: PC System Requirements”, updated May 29, 2026, read November 11, 2026 (https://support.borderlands.com/hc/en-us/articles/42243419935251-Borderlands-4-PC-System-Requirements).
• Borderlands Issue Tracker (2K), “Oct. 22nd Update: PC Users with AMD Hardware Crash when Fast Traveling to Upper Dominion”, posted October 22, 2026, updated November 10, 2026, read November 11, 2026 (https://support.borderlands.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/56699997141779-Oct-22nd-Update-PC-Users-with-AMD-Hardware-Crash-when-Fast-Traveling-to-Upper-Dominion).
• Borderlands Issue Tracker (2K), “PC: Activating V-Sync and Frame Generation Decreases Performance with Low Refresh Rate Monitors”, October 2, 2026, read November 11, 2026 (https://support.borderlands.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/56028848298131-PC-Activating-V-Sync-and-Frame-Generation-Decreases-Performance-with-Low-Refresh-Rate-Monitors).
• Borderlands Issue Tracker (2K), “PC: Update Files May Fail to Download, Preventing Players from Matchmaking”, updated August 10, 2026, read November 11, 2026 (https://support.borderlands.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/44833908651667-PC-Update-Files-May-Fail-to-Download-Preventing-Players-from-Matchmaking).
• Borderlands Issue Tracker (2K), “Your Settings Have Failed To Save”, updated March 29, 2026, read November 11, 2026 (https://support.borderlands.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/44643213120019-Your-Settings-Have-Failed-To-Save).
• Borderlands Issue Tracker (2K), “PC: Crash On Launch When Using AMD FSR Upscaling (AMD RX 7000 Series GPUs)”, listed as patched, updated July 30, 2026, read November 11, 2026 (https://support.borderlands.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/52851146915091-PC-Crash-On-Launch-When-Using-AMD-FSR-Upscaling-AMD-RX-7000-Series-GPUs).
• Video “Borderlands 4 - Story Pack 2 & Loveless - Launch Trailer”, Borderlands channel, September 10, 2026 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDnnHdJIOdA).
• Image: official Borderlands 4 screenshot on Steam (https://store.steampowered.com/app/1285190/Borderlands_4/), © Gearbox Software / 2K.
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